Tequila Shots & Lonely Hearts
by DebC75
Summary: Reyes wakes up with someone in her bed...


Tequila Shots & Lonely Hearts  
  
Author: Langleigh  
  
E-mail: langleigh75@yahoo.com  
  
Rating:PG-13?  
  
Category: VR  
  
Spoilers: Season 8-9 up through Trust No 1  
  
Archiving: Yes at XFMU, ReyesRomances, OpenrEyes, Ephmeral and Gossamer. Azar, you may have it for Risky Business. All others must ask me first.  
  
Disclaimers: The characters and concepts of the X-Files belong to people other than me. People with lots more money than me. Such is life...  
  
Summary: Reyes wakes up with someone in her bed...  
  
"Tequila Shots & Lonely Hearts"  
  
Awareness slowly dawned upon the mind of Monica Reyes, gently rousing her from sleep. With it came the realization that, at the moment, her body ached all over. ::I shouldn't have gone to the bar last night...:: she told herself, her head throbbing. She opened her eyes, wincing as morning sunlight hit them. She quickly shut them again. She hadn't had a hangover this bad in ages.  
  
::What happened last night?:: she wondered, trying to piece together just how much she'd actually had to drink. She remembered going to the bar after her fight with John, ordering tequila and...  
  
All thoughts stopped when a deep sigh came from the pillows beside her. She felt the bed shift as a body turned in its sleep and sudden an arm draped itself around her.  
  
Her eyes shot open, the shock of this revelation overcoming her desire *not* to burn them. She looked and, sure enough, a man's arm was wrapped around her waist. Her naked waist, she realized, cursing her own habit of sleeping au naturelle.  
  
Bracing for the worst--a dirty truck driver perhaps-- she turned her head to see to whose arm circled her body. As she did so, a gasp escaped her lips and her memories came rushing back to her, spurred on by what she saw.  
  
::flashing back::  
  
Monica jumped as a hand fell on her shoulder. Turning away from the bar-- and her third shot of tequila--she was surprised to find Assistant Director Walter Skinner standing behind her.  
  
"Mind if I join you?" he asked, venturing a slight smile.  
  
"It's a free country," she said with a shrug, but still turned her barstool to face his as he sat down next to her. "Did John send you?" she asked, although she seriously doubted it.  
  
"Agent Doggett? No," Skinner replied. "I just came from Scully's apartment. She's not taking this well, I'm afraid." He studied her closely. "Am I to assume Doggett didn't take it well either?"  
  
It was a casual and yet very loaded question.  
  
"He's hurt," Monica told him, downing the last of her tequila and signaling for the bartender. "Care to join me in a drink?" she asked Skinner. He nodded and the bartender poured two shots of the clear liquid.  
  
"He cares about her, doesn't he?" Skinner asked.  
  
"Worships her," retorted Monica, making short work of her drink and slapping the shot glass back down on the bar. "She doesn't even notice him, though. I tried to tell him that tonight. He never listens... at least not to me and not when it comes to *her.*" The bartender poured them both another round and this time, Reyes asked him to leave the bottle.  
  
What followed was a long silence in which the two co-horts took turns refilling their empty shot glasses.  
  
"And you care about him?" Skinner asked when the bottle was nearly empty.  
  
"He's my best friend; of course I care."  
  
"I meant--"  
  
"I know what you meant, sir," she said.  
  
"Walter," he corrected her.  
  
"Walter," she repeated, the name and the alcohol softening her bitter expression. "He's my friend, and I don't want to see him through his life away on a woman who is in mourning for the man she herself sent away."  
  
Skinner nodded.  
  
"It's silly to give your heart to someone who's heart is already taken," she murmured thoughtfully, pouring them both another round.  
  
"Silly..." Skinner echoed. He slipped an arm around her shoulder. "I'm sorry he doesn't listen to you," he slurred, sorry coming out as "sowwy" under the influence of the tequila.  
  
"Me too," she admitted, looking at him and staring deeply into his eyes. For some reason, they were incredibly mesmerizing.  
  
::flashing forward::  
  
Monica's eyes widened even more. "Ohmigod..." she whispered, careful not to wake the man slumbering in bed. ::What did we do?::  
  
::flashing back::  
  
"You... you, ah, went to see Dana tonight, then?" she asked in an attempt to make her brain work past his intense eyes and the muscles she sensed-- rather than saw--beneath his white dress shirt.  
  
"Yeah..." Walter Skinner let out a sigh. "She really shouldn't have gotten her hopes up. Seeing Mulder again..." he trailed off. He shook his head. "Mulder's leaving affects us all, I think. Scully, Doggett. Me... even you."  
  
"No," she said "he doesn't affect me. I barely knew him."  
  
"Neither did Doggett," said Skinner, "but he hurts because Scully hurts. And you... " he paused, and Monica because aware of the emotional storm raging inside this man. It flashed in his eyes like lightning. "You're too special to hurt like this..."  
  
His words threw her completely off balance, and before she knew what was happening, he was leaning in towards her. His expression was one of sensuality and desire...  
  
::flashing forward::  
  
Monica's eyes flew open. They'd fluttered closed with the memory of Walter's lips closing in on her own. "No..." she whispered to herself. The word, however, did nothing to still the fluttering of heart and the surge of desire the memory had awakened in her. It was all she could do to tell herself that she didn't need this right now.  
  
"This" being a gorgeous, sexy man in her bed. A man she'd been fighting an attraction to from the moment they met.  
  
::What do I do now?:: she asked herself as she watched him, admiring the serenity in his sleeping face. As she watched him, a smile flitted across his slumbering features. She smiled in turn, enjoying the view immensely.  
  
Suddenly an impulse took hold of her and, leaning towards him, she brushed her lips against his. She was surprised when he responded, even in his sleep, and returned her light kiss with one of his own. A nagging voice piped up in the back of her head, reminding her of how it was with Brad.  
  
For just that one moment, Monica ignored it. 


End file.
